Greetings Yourback:
The only ways to discover the owner of a restricted number on a cell
phone are to have a lawyer subpoena your cell phone company to release
the information for legal purposes or for you to file a police report
and have the police request the records. I know this because a friend
of mine has begun receiving calls from a restricted number on her cell
phone that she believes are from a former lover stalking her. At my
urging, she phoned the cell phone company to see if they could
ascertain the phone number.
They told her that they did have the number in their system (it cannot
be blocked from the cell phone company, just the recipient of the
call) but that she would have to have subpoena the information or file
a police report and have law enforcement officially request to view
the records.
My friend also has an Order of Protection with a "no social contact"
clause already in place so if the calls are from her former lover, the
lover will go directly to jail. She has asked her lawyer to subpoena
the records.
However, I found no confirmation of this information online for you to
support my claim. I have only the recent experience of learning it
myself. Also, if you pay for your cell phone minutes that are used
when this person calls, a lawyer may be able to use TITLE 47 > CHAPTER
5 > SUBCHAPTER II > Part I > Sec. 223 of the federal code to level
charges at the person. I am not a lawyer so I do not know if the TCPA
can be applied in this situation. See
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/47/223.html for the code.
If they are trying to sell you something, the code at
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/47/227.html may apply:
"(b) Restrictions on use of automated telephone equipment
(1) Prohibitions
It shall be unlawful for any person within the United States -
(A) to make any call (other than a call made for emergency purposes or
made with the prior express consent of the called party) using any
automatic telephone dialing system or an artificial or prerecorded
voice - ...
iii)
to any telephone number assigned to a paging service, cellular
telephone service, specialized mobile radio service, or other radio
common carrier service, or any service for which the called party is
charged for the call;"
The above is from http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/47/227.html - the
penalty for this is:
"(5) Private right of action
A person who has received more than one telephone call within any
12-month period by or on behalf of the same entity in violation of the
regulations prescribed under this subsection may, if otherwise
permitted by the laws or rules of court of a State bring in an
appropriate court of that State -
(A)
an action based on a violation of the regulations prescribed under
this subsection to enjoin such violation,
(B)
an action to recover for actual monetary loss from such a violation,
or to receive up to $500 in damages for each such violation, whichever
is greater, or
(C)
both such actions.
It shall be an affirmative defense in any action brought under this
paragraph that the defendant has established and implemented, with due
care, reasonable practices and procedures to effectively prevent
telephone solicitations in violation of the regulations prescribed
under this subsection. If the court finds that the defendant willfully
or knowingly violated the regulations prescribed under this
subsection, the court may, in its discretion, increase the amount of
the award to an amount equal to not more than 3 times the amount
available under subparagraph (B) of this paragraph."
Telephone harassment is against the law in all states but the laws may
vary according to your state. If you will clarify where you live
(state and county), I will be happy to search your state laws for
telephone harassment.
Best regards,
journalist-ga
SEARCH STRATEGY:
[personal experience]
US code common carrier |
